Easter Recap

Well it's been almost a week since Easter already..wow, where does time go.....really? On Easter day I handed out some super fun bags to all the grownups at our Easter egg hunt. I found the super cool bag template at House of 3. I printed the image directly on the bag and then embellished it with a paper doilie and attached them with flowers and a brad at the top.

Inside the bag was also a card that I made from the House of 3 Easter Bag download kit. Instead of printing the design on a bag I printed it on regular paper, cut it down, then in half. One half was used as the front on the card and the other was used for the inside of the card. I topped them off with some cute Easter stamps and voilla a super easy gift...six super easy gifts that is!!

Traveling the World!!!

I am in total awe right now. I added the FEEDJIT to my blog last night, (which is in the sidebar) and I can't believe that my creations have been seen in 7 countries in less than 24 hours!!! I am so stoked!!! I was beginning to think that no one even came to my blog and then this really lifted my spirits! France, China, Vietnam, Poland, South Africa, Italy, and of course the U.S.!!!

I'm on cloud 9!

So if your ever stopping by, leave me a comment.....some "blog love" as they call it.....I am sure to return the favor and visit your blog as well!

Just for fun I will share with you an image of myself I altered in Photoshop and added some digital scrapbooking elements to.

Because I care....

I made up 6 of these bags to keep in my car. I plan on giving them to those less fortunate that I pass along on the streets. Instead of giving the people with the signs money...I want to give them something that I hope they would buy if I gave them money.

I often think of how someone would wind up traveling around like they do...homeless and alone. How hard it must be to not have a friend or family member to take you in and help care for you (or at least choose not to be helped upon). Cold winter nights, hot summer days, no bed, no toilet, no shower, no food. It's really hard for me not to feel compassion for them. I give them money when I actually do have some cash on me (which is very rare). When I don't I can't even look into their eyes....and then I feel guilty and think "did they really ask for this path in life?". Yet I am afraid for my own safety and my families to do anything but hand them something out the window of my vehicle. I don't pick up hitchhikers and I don't actually give them "work for food", even though I wish it was safe enough to do so. I know that I personally have enough family and friends to keep me afloat if something tragic happened and I lost everything. But seeing them makes me wonder where I would wind up if I didn't?

OK, OK, enough negative ramble....off to the good stuff!! In the bags I have a roll of toilet paper, toothbrush (in a ziploc), toothpaste, bar of soap, carmex, and a mini deck of cards. It cost me roughly $6-7 per bag to make including the decorations.

I also put in a little note printed on balloon stationary paper with a matching envelope. I have had this stationary for quite some time and finally have a use for it!!! The note says:

For you I hope:

your path leads you the right way,

your mind gives you peace,

your heart gives you joy,

your mistakes give you knowledge,

your kindness is appreciated,

your evils are forgiven,

your stomach never aches,

your pain is short,

your health is well,

your happiness is abundant,

your strength is never ending,

your sleep is replenishing,

your courage is great,

your laugh is heard often,

your purpose is fulfilled.

My goal is to brighten their day, and hope to give them a little faith in the human race. Some of us do care out here and they need to know that.

Plastic Challenge!

I participated in my first Challenge last month!! It was so fun to use my out-of-the-box ideas that I have stored in my head! There are so many things from around the house that I spare from having to go into the trash, with the idea that "hey I could use that for scrapbooking". I have stashes of what some may consider "junk" but they are all endless possibilities to create something fab in my mind!

My example of my trash to treasure today is many plastic items I have saved from the circular file!!! Donna Downey has a monthly newsletter that you can sign up for here. The March "Trash to Treasure" challenge was to use plastic! Here was my take on the challenge!

I <3>
The album is made out of floppy disks and the binding rings were cut from plastic gift bags that had hair accessories in them (dollar store find!). I cut the handles to the size I needed and sewed the ends together with clear necklace thread (plastic maybe?).


The binding strap is made out of a ribbon, a plastic loop from a bra strap, and a plastic piece from toy packaging (you know the ones with the wire ties through it).

The metal sliders have hidden surprised in them!!

I removed the inner disk from some of the floppy’s and used them as pages. This one I wrote on with a white pen.

Peek-a-boo window with ribbon hidden inside.

I utilized this open hole and added some plastic beads!! I used the same necklace thread.

The floppy film on this page was inked with Tim Holtz alcohol inks and gives it more of a vinyl record look. A mini white…plastic button in the center as well!

The alcohol inks really showed up on the metal piece to the floppy film.

I used the hole in this disk as a frame. The Cricut image is actually inside the disk.
I added glitter to the floppy film with diamond glaze glue.

More glitter on the floppy film, and white text. There is another surprise on this page!

It is magic!!! Sorry for sloppy writing…but it’s mine!!!

This floppy film I had a layer of alcohol inks and then dabbed yellow acrylic paint on top. The pink alcohol ink blended with the acrylic paint!!! Prima flowers added on top with a plastic jem!

Another peek-a-boo window!

I punched an extra hole on the last page to tie the ribbon for the binding clasp.

On the final page I filled the empty hole with 4 scalloped circle punches that I chalked and adorned with a big plastic jem.

The ribbon charm is the adjustment strap from a bra!

Well that's it!!! I didn't win, but that's OK...I am totally proud of this baby and I am up for this month's challenge!! I will report to you next month on my recycled creation!!! Wish me luck!

Birthday Boys

Today I will share with you 2 Birthday cards that I made specifically for "boys" *ahem* well I guess I should say "men"!!!! :D



The first (as you may guess) was for my Daddy-O! To get the unique shaped papers that have the "Happy Birthday" sentiment on it, I cut the two rectangular papers to the size I wanted and then used a corner rounder on the opposite corners! I used Nostalgiques stamps for the "DAD", and Stampin' Up for the "Happy Birthday" which are embossed with white ultra thick powder. The edges are all inked in brown.

This one was for my bro-in-law!! I just love the retro paper and was lucky to find papers that matched the colors of the Kurio chipboard letters perfectly!!! It's so bright and artsy!!! LOVE IT! Not to mention it took me about 10 min. to conceive and create this puppy!

Bright Birthday

The birthday girl who received this card, loves purple, so I found a two coordinating purple papers in the Provo Craft Super Slab 10. I also had a purple piece of mulberry that went well with the ensemble. I used a 6x6 page that had the flourish cut on it already and traced it onto the back of the flower patterned paper. With an embossing pen I traced the outline of the papers and used Stamp N Stuff Starry Night embossing powder.

As an extra bonus in the card I used a piece of acrylic and made a tag with 3 cute birdies that tucked into the front of the card.

Wedding Cards

While I am in the mood for posting wedding projects, I will share with you the Bridal Shower card and wedding card I created for the wonderful Bride and Groom to be! I found a similar card in Card Maker magazine and this is my take on it. (When I find the issue I will credit it here!)

I even made my own envelope that I was pretty proud of!!

The Winning Wedding Invitation!!

In my last post I covered the spec wedding invitations I made. Well without further ado, here is the winning spec. It was modified very slightly from it's original state, but this is it!

This is what the invitation looks like fully open.

This is an insert card that was inside.

It is white Bazzil, gatefold with a flap. The black tile that hangs over one of the flaps is a black shiny (patent leather like) paper. The top maroon paper is WorldWin Dark Berry Red Paper. I used black Stazon Black ink and then re-inked the same image with embossing ink and topped it off with with Ranger Polysparkle embossing powder. The inside panel and insert card text was printed on my Epson R1800. The swirl stamps are Flourishes by Autumn Leaves and the heart stamp is Hearts & Flourishes by Clearly Inspired. I adorned the outer stamped flourishes with diamond jems.

*Edit 4/1/09* I forgot to mention that I made 170 of these babies!!! and I wanted to show the detail of the embossing. I want to give credit to the double embossing lining up perfectly to the fact that acrylic stamps rock!!! I would have never been able to do it with a traditional stamp and would have lost my mind trying :P

The Wedding Runner Ups....

In the process of designing a wedding invitation for a family member, I created 9 specs first. These are the 8 runner-ups in no particular order. I was testing different textures of papers, ribbons, colors, folds, and techniques throughout.


Spec#1: White paper, fold on 1/3 with maroon overlay over flap.

Spec #2: Black paper, fold on 1/3 with purple mulberry paper over flap, 2 jewels

Spec #2 inside: test of white and maroon paper with a vellum overlay.

Spec #3: Black paper, gatefold, purple mulberry accent, and gold heart wax seal

Spec #4: Black paper, triangle gatefold with punched holes and maroon ribbon tied through, inside has white overlay.

Spec #5: Black paper, gatefold with punched holes and maroon sheer ribbon tied through.

Spec #6: White paper, gatefold with purple mulberry accent, and black ribbon tied around entire invitation.

Spec #7: Black paper, gatefold with maroon sheer/satin ribbon tied around entire invitation.

Spec #7 inside: natural fiber paper matted with maroon. (Tested paper successfully in printer!!)

Spec #8: Black paper, double-gatefold (gatefold with flaps) with maroon ribbon tied around entire invitation.

Spec #8 inside: white overlays on panels, minus the "flap" panels.

I will post the "winning" spec invitation very soon!!